Why has ' mammon' in Mtt 6:24 remained un-translated?

The Aramaic word apparently remained untranslated when the saying was first preserved in Greek. No doubt it was personified because of its juxtaposition with God, as if it represented the "god of this world." This was probably the origin of the fiction that Mammon was actually a Syrian deity, lost to history.

In English, the preservation of the untranslated word may be related to its use by Milton in Paradise Lost:

There stood a hill not far, whose grisly top Belched fire and rolling smoke; the rest entire Shone with a glossy scurf... Thither, winged with speed, A numerous brigade hastened... Mammon led them on, Mammon, the least erected Spirit that fell From Heaven; for even in Heaven his looks and thoughts Were always downward bent...

Milton's usage no doubt contributed to the tradition of older English versions using the word as a Proper noun.

KJV Untranslated
The KJV translation committee was walking on pins and needles when attempting to come up with an acceptable Bible under the orders of King James. They had to appease the Puritans on the one hand, and the Anglicans on the other. This no doubt affected which way they translated or transliterated a word.

Mammon is not the only Greek (Aramaic) word left untranslated. Consider the word "deacon" from deakonos (Gk). Which could have been translated "servant." Or consider the word, "angel" which means "messenger". The KJV does not treat it consistently. Sometimes it is transliterated as in Luke 2:9 to refer to a supernatural being. Other times it is used of John the Baptist, a man of God. And there is an occasion in Matthew 24:31 when "angel" should definitely be translated as "messengers", referring to preachers of the Gospel in all of the world.

Other words quite often transliterated instead of being translated are: baptize, presbyter, Eucharist, decade, prophet, anthropology, ethnic, Sanhedrin, apostle, charismata, Philadelphia, and psalm, etc. So it is not out of the ordinary that mammon is transliterated, instead of being translated.

Consider the Greek word, euaggelidzimo which the KJV committee chose to go ahead and translate as "preach the Gospel". But if they had transliterated it as "evangelize" (which is different than pastoral preaching) they would have been more accurate in presenting the intent of the Gospel writers. And consequently more respect would be shown to evangelists because the N.T. put a lot of emphasis on that ministry, using this word instead of the other Greek words for "preach" or "herald." (kerusso, Gk.)

The Reformers did transliterate the Greek word for evangelist in their Olde English and French versions more than the KJV, realizing the difference that "evangelism" is from merely "preaching," and the need to highlight that type of ministry. See Luke 20:1, Jesus taught and evangelized, Gk.; Acts 8:4, Those who had been scattered evangelized wherever they went, Gk. (Wycliffe, 36x...French Geneva, 24x...English Geneva, 0x...French Catholic, 37x...English Standard Version, 0x...NIV, 0x...Holman Christian Standard, 7x)

So there is no consistency (rhyme or reason) for the actions of the KJV committee. And their influence is no doubt the reason for the way modern translation committees are not consistent in translating all the N.T. words, but of transliterating them instead---including "mammon."

Resource
Alvin Reid, Evangelism Handbook, 2009, p. 25-28
Nestle-Aland, Greek Majority Text
ESV Concordance

The word μαμωνᾶς (mamónas) occurs four times in the Greek NT, Matt 6:24, Luke 16:9, 11, 13. It is word of Aramaic origin and simply means "wealth", "riches", "money".

For some bizarre reason (perhaps because they we flummoxed??), the KJV translators left it untranslated.

This is odd because, there are many words in most languages that come from outside sources that are used as common words. In English we have:

• algebra, Coffee, Cotton, Safari, Alchemy, of Arabic origin
• Cuisine, poultry, fiancé, ballet, cafe, cliche, of French origin
• animal, maximum, science, circa, veto, aqua, ultimatum, of Latin origin
• acrobat, cemetery, chronology, democracy, chaos, echo, philosophy, of Greek origin
• etc, etc

In 1st century Judah, several languages lived in common use: Hebrew, Aramaic, Latin, and Greek; unsurprisingly, they "infected" the common language. There are more than 100 examples in the NT of the use of Hebrew, Aramaic and Latin in the Greek text. "Mammon" is just another.

The only explanations I can offer for the KJV's untranslated use of "mammon" is:

• an inexplicable idiosyncrasy
• the Latin Clementine text and Jerome's Latin Vulgate left it untranslated; Tyndale also left untranslated and the KJV translators just copied Tyndale. [Significantly, Wycliffe, even though working from the Latin, translated the word to "richessis". The Genevea Bible also translates it to "riches".]
• that the KJV translators did not know what it meant. (I think this is very unlikely!)

Matt. 6:24

[24] Οὐδεὶς δύναται δυσὶ κυρίοις δουλεύειν· ἢ γὰρ τὸν ἕνα μισήσει καὶ τὸν ἕτερον ἀγαπήσει, ἢ ἑνὸς ἀνθέξεται καὶ τοῦ ἑτέρου καταφρονήσει. οὐ δύνασθε θεῷ δουλεύειν καὶ μαμωνᾷ. (NA 28th)

Even though the Lord is referred to as "κύριος" (lord), through research, no person or being is listed anywhere in this name (or at least I did not find it), neither in Babylonian-Asyrian mythology, nor is it easy to find any historical tradition at that time of the Lord, which says explicitly that this is a person.

Wisdom of the son of Sirach

LXX, 10:8

βασιλεία ἀπὸ ἔθνους εἰς ἔθνος μετάγεται διὰ ἀδικίας καὶ ὕβρεις καὶ χρήματα (= money)

Libri Veteris Testamenti Apocryphi Syriace, by Paul de Lagarde (Sirach 10:8, the word “mamuna”)

Here the Syriac Bible in the book of “Wisdom of the son of Sirach” has the word, and the Septuagint says “money.” Of course, the LXX translated, obviously, the original Hebrew and not this Syriac. Syriac is an Aramaic dialect.

Thesaurus Syriacus vol. 2

The Dictionary of Payne Smith

In Babylonian-Assyrian mythology there is no indication. Myths And Legends Of Babylonia And Assyria

Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, by Gerhard Kittel (need to make acc. and borrow it for free)

Notes

From Greek Wikipedia

The word Mammon occurs four times in the New Testament in the Hellenistic common language and is of Aramaic origin, probably from the root «’mn» (ܐܡܢ) meaning "that which one trusts". The word does not appear in the Old Testament, but in Hebrew texts it is used with the meanings "resource", "profit" (mainly dishonest), "compensation", "ransom" or "bribe", always giving the sense of unworthiness and being a target of moral criticism. Similar words in the Masoretic, Hebrew text of the Old Testament (as in Ps. 37:3 and perhaps Isa. 33:6), are rendered in the Septuagint as "wealth or silver".

From Thesaurus Syriacus

The meaning of “credidit” from the “Online Latin Dictionary”:

1. to trust, to entrust
2. to commit, to consign
3. to believe, to trust in, to rely on, to confide
4. to suppose
5. (money) to lend to, to make loans, to give credit
6. to believe, to think, to accept as true, to be sure